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Having recently finished an EotE game in which I dipped pretty deep into the available Force Powers, I can say the problem is definitely consistency versus strength. Even after a fairly generous distribution of Force dice (I ended the game with 3 thanks for the GM letting me buy into multiple force trees), I found I couldn't really pull out the stops when I wanted. I went with Move and Influence. Part of the problem with Move is that in combat, it theoretically does a billion damage if you have a stray AT-AT laying around or whatever. In practice I never made it work. The double jeopardy of both "Get sufficient pips on your Move test" and "make a Discipline check" meant that most of the time I just whiffed and pulling out my blaster was way, way more reliable. Outside of combat though, particularly since there's no skill roll for just moving poo poo there wasn't a lot of stuff I couldn't throw around if I wanted. Spaceships, cars, whatever, as long as it didn't call for an actual opposed roll there was no reason to make me roll Force dice until I succeeded since there was zero risk in failure. I have no problem with Move not turning low-powered fringers into wizards; if anything, I prefer that mode of play. The problem is that you get this weird dissonance where you can, theoretically, crush somebody with a space ship and then it doesn't work; but outside of combat you're moving around giant stone blocks with your mind. I really think Move is more useful as a way to manipulate objects at a distance, since that enables cool scenes where 'more damage' would be just as possible if not easier with a bigger weapon. Honestly I wish they had just put the force powers into specialization trees themselves, rather than having force trees be this weird, separate thing you buy into. Then you can basically have Luke: the power progression as its own non-career specialization. And then you wouldn't have to have filler talents like Street Smarts in there either.
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Oct 5, 2014 08:53
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I don't find the combat - on the face of it - to be particularly compelling in this system. It's not bad, and it can actually be a lot of fun but you need the cooperation of everybody at the table to make it work. I think that way too much space is dedicated to making characters increasingly deadly in really fiddly ways; I think that not enough space is dedicated to how to make non-combat characters increasingly competent in other fields; and I think that when you roll the dice you have to be prepared to really narrate the consequences of the roll with the help of everybody at the table. It's not that its especially complicated. It's mostly that you can theoretically funnel near-infinite XP into being an increasingly badass assassin and then basically cap out on being a doctor. This problem is exacerbated if the game is run with a series of combat encounters, and doubly so if those encounters are dull "shoot until finished" affairs. The game is <this close> to being a Dungeon World-esque romp in space but it needs the right group to make it work.
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Dec 18, 2014 00:09
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It's sort of important to note that, for your average Joe Star Wars, the issue of droid sapience isn't something he thinks about. He formats his droid's memories regularly the same reason you clean out your computer fans or do other basic computer maintenance - they don't work as well if you don't do that. The hosed up part is that there isn't a big Jedi treatise on droid sapience and the suffering of artificial life forms. I think it's pretty hosed up that the Jedi, for all their enlightenment, look at droids and say, 'oh poo poo man, they don't have have magic glowy auras, let's not give them a second thought.' I mean I'm sure you could find something written in the EU somewhere but yeah it's pretty odd nobody's made a big deal out of it in the thousands of years the Star Wars universe is said to have existed.
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Apr 13, 2015 01:43
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PantsOptional posted:Well, to their credit, they literally have a magic connection through which they can feel all living things. Droids don't come up in that at all, so you can kind of see the Jedi logic in that. Granted, it gets a bit hosed as soon as a droid with any personality whatsoever enters the picture, but at the very least you can see where they're coming from here. Well yes but that puts a higher degree of importance on life than on sapience, which seems like a pretty thin line for an order of enlightened zen ascetics to tread. One could even make a pretty good argument that the Jedi look down on droids because a.) droids can't be Jedi and b.) because droids can't be mind-controlled through the Force. When your droids can think, feel pain and joy, develop personalities and aversions, and retain, for some reason, the ability to suffer the fact that 'aren't alive' doesn't really seem all that important.
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Apr 13, 2015 05:07
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FISHMANPET posted:Every installment that George produced just goes to show how little he was thinking beyond the literal content he was making. Episode 4 is very clearly a contained story, 5 and 6 were created in one unit to continue that story and had to kind of deal with the environment that 4 had created. The prequels had all this heft of random stuff that had been said about Anakin and the Clone Wars and people's relationships and actions, and that all had to be explained in the prequels. When Obi Wan tells Luke his father fought in the Clone Wars, do you think George had any idea what the hell that meant? More to the point each thing is created ad-hoc to explain something. Padme isn't sad, we're told that she's sad. It has all the authenticity of a lip sync. Same goes for Anakin and Padme's relationship in general. Episode 2 goes to great lengths to paint them as lovers pining for one another but it's just a lot of bullshit - it's not believable, the dude is creepy and Padme seems barely interested. The worst is Anakin's fall from grace. Anakin is scared Padme will die for reasons and his answer to that is, apparently, to seek for Fraknenstinian power over life and death. Not to stand watch over her or to try to ensure her safety. We jump straight to, 'she's gonna die so let's take advice from the old man who says he has god like power over life.' Anakin falls to the Dark Side because the story needs him to, so they tell us what happens. There were so many less ham-fisted ways to do it. What I'm getting at is that yes, almost none of Star Wars was designed with the implications of what lies behind some of its declarations considered. Almost everything in the movies is a plot contrivance designed to keep things moving forward. That doesn't mean you can't have fun thinking about those things, but I think when you sit down to play an RPG about Star Wars and people are going to start asking really obvious questions about the setting you have be prepared to either come up with a better explanation than Lucas or, as is the case with Droids, expect every rational player to immediately take up the cause of droid rights.
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Apr 13, 2015 21:39
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What is everyone's experience with Destiny Points? I feel like they're a really cool idea but because they change hands so much and the GM is encouraged not to stockpile them, the number only really matters when there are none of one color left. Also in practice I find any time one side spends one, so does the other, and I'm curious if this is expected behavior or something that should be discouraged. Is there really any functional difference between having 5 points of Destiny in play versus 6 or 7?
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May 9, 2015 21:36
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Was the DS hyperspace capable? I mean it must have been because there's no way they're expecting the mosey that thing across the galaxy on impulse but it's never shown moving through hyperspace. That seems like it would have a ton of practical issues, not the least of which is your massive hyperspace shadow ramming into local debris and poo poo when you come to a halt. Is there anything written about it in the EU?
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May 14, 2015 01:15
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So I'm looking for success stories. Specifically, I'm looking for examples of when people used Advantage/Threat to really alter a scene in non-linear ways, or when a Triumph or Despair changed the course of a story in a dramatic way. I'll even take hypotheticals if they're applicable enough!
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Jul 22, 2015 05:05
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Corbeau posted:So I just heard that a new RPG group for this is forming tomorrow evening at one of the local stores. I'm looking at trying it out; is there anything that I could/should know or read that would ease getting into the game system? Learn which of the three games (Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, Force and Destiny) you're going to be playing. Adjust expectations appropriately. Do not expect to play a Jedi in an Edge of the Empire game, for instance. Read about how the dice system actually works. Understanding even conceptually what all these symbols mean will ease your transition considerably. Characteristics are king; there is no better way to spend your starting points. If you're playing a one or two shot and you get to make your own character you can probably afford a couple of Talents just to make things a bit more exciting.
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Oct 21, 2015 03:51
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Pyronic posted:for all you GMs out there, how much did you prepare before starting your campaigns? Sandbox or more structured? How are the official adventures? I'm currently working on putting together the campaign prologue set piece (see my last posts) but I'm not sure how much time I wanna spend past the first session or two planning before I know what direction they end up going. One of the biggest stumbling blocks for new GMs in this system is a reluctance to let the dice derail the story; but that ignores the biggest strength of the game. Frankly you almost can't prepare too little beyond maybe a few NPCs, a vague threat to the galaxy, and a couple of backup notes on encounters and what to do in case the odd Despair comes up.
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May 21, 2016 09:53
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